Wednesday, February 29, 2012

My phone beeped this morning. When I checked the incoming email, one was from Jennifer's boss, saying that she was sick and wasn't going to be able to make it. Great, super. One less person to help with picking food up and decorating and setting up.

The 3 food trays (cheese, vegetable, fruit) were incredibly heavy. The fruit one buckled a little from the weight while in transit, causing some of the fruit juice to get on my coworker's cream colored pants.

Sigh. Oh well. How boring would this story be if everything happened just the way it was supposed to?

Anyway, we played some games and ate a ton of food. For anyone that has a party coming up and needs a cake idea, go to Whole Foods and order the strawberries and cream cake. It was just as awesome as people said it would be. It was ordered for another office baby shower at the beginning of February, but I didn't get to eat it because I was out sick. Several people reported to me the day after that the cake was awesome. Yep, it was. My favorite gift that Jennifer got was these onesies- Thing 1 and Thing 2.

If I should ever get tired of public health, I think I should go into event planning...

Song of the day: "Young Blood"- The Naked and Famous. Heard it at spin class last night.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I had a very productive morning today. I was able to mail off my cable bill, get flowers for my office mate to celebrate her birthday, AND drop off baby shower items off in the main building. All before 8:30 AM. I was so proud of myself. I wasn't sure how my arms and shoulders would be feeling this morning, but I'm feeling lots better.At the office: The office has been very generous to us today. I found a $10 gift card to FrozenYo in my mailbox this morning, so of course, I had to cash in on it. I went over there for an afternoon break and got some cheesecake flavored frozen yogurt with Heath Bar and mochi toppings. Yum yum.

Baby shower prep: We are holding a baby shower at the office tomorrow for my former office mate, Jennifer. Because I had some free time this afternoon, I volunteered to do it. It was nice that we had enough diapers for two cakes because she's having twin girls. I fortunately had some pink ribbon in my craft room to use for decorating the diaper cake. For anyone that wants to do a diaper cake in the future, I got the instructions from this website. I can't take all the credit. One of the new girls from Communications walked by and asked me if I needed any help. Yep, here are some diapers and rubber bands, have at it! I can't wait to see Jennifer's expression when she sees all the presents and decorations. And I'm so glad that the office let me be crafty at work and utilize my other talents, other than planning and managing conference calls.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Post-CrossFit: Recovery from Saturday's CrossFit class continues. My legs are feeling much better, but my arms. Ugh. It hurts to raise them. I have to grit my teeth while putting on a hoodie and tying my hair up in a ponytail. These are normally very simple tasks, but now I know what it's like when it's not so easy and not to take mobility for granted. Thank goodness for IcyHot.

Books: Since I couldn't really do much last night, I finished The Hunger Games. I'm glad that I was able to finish it a) so that I could give it back to Jennifer at the office and b) when I go see the movie, I'll know what's going on. I put the second and third books on hold at the library, but then found out that I'm like #200+ in line. Maybe I should go back and get The Help while I wait for my turn to come up.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

I decided to take last Friday off work to visit my sister in Charlottesville, VA. Not too long after I got into town, she took me on a short tour of where she does her research and went to lunch with some of her friends at a local deli. For dinner, there were a bunch of prospective students visiting, and they were all going to a Balkan restaurant in town. I tagged along and put my meal on a separate bill. The restaurant already had a predetermined menu prepared for us. For the main course, I chose the chicken paprikash, which was like a chicken, onion, and carrot stew. Check out that very nice dessert tray below! After dinner, we went back to Julie's apartment and watched Captain America on DVD.

Saturday started out with a trip to the grocery store and then an intro CrossFit class that Julie had been interested in trying. Oh, man. It was TOUGH, even though I go to spin class 4-5 times a week. The instructor gave us an overview of CrossFit and then walked us through a few exercises. The last exercise was doing as many burpees you could in 7 minutes. I ran out of gas halfway through, but pushed forward until the end. I ended up with 47 burpees in 7 minutes (that's the number that I have to beat, just in case I ever want to put myself through that torture again). My shoulder and thighs were really sore after class and even this morning. Whew! It's really apparent that I need to work on my strength training.

After CrossFit, we went to get Thai food for lunch, took a break, went shopping, and got Indian food for dinner (butter chicken, naan and chana masala). It was really good. (So good, that I decided I didn't have enough Indian food, so I ordered the same thing for dinner tonight from an Indian restaurant nearby.) We watched Mission: Impossible: III until it was time for bed. Then that brings us to today, where during breakfast, Julie opened her birthday presents and helped me pack up my stuff so that I could get on the road.

Mom and Dad were nice enough to keep on eye on the house and more importantly, RJ. They both reported that RJ was very cuddly when they came to check on him. I came home to a very furry pillow on my bed, so I'm pretty sure that's where he spent most of his time while I was away. When I walked into my office, I was pleasantly surprised that my mom hung up my undergraduate and graduate diplomas (she framed them for my birthday). All this time, they've been rolled up in their cardboard tubes. I had been waiting to get a place of my own before I hung them up, and now that I do have a place of my own, I feel like my craft room is officially finished. Hooray!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Card: Here's my take on CPS #253. I wanted to use some of the new items that I bought this past weekend. I picked out an American Crafts paper flower and some brads for some dimension and sparkle.Nail Polish: I painted my nails last night with the nail polish that I got over the weekend with a coupon. This is 3 coats of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in Yellow Kitty. Eh, I think it's okay. It's been 24 hours and it's already started chipping at the tips. In full disclosure, I didn't put a top coat on this manicure, so that's probably contributing to the chipping.

Monday, February 20, 2012

I woke up around the regular time and started working on the 50-card order that I got from Human Resources (they have the Executive Director write a message and send these out to staff on their start-date anniversary). Assignment: 50 anniversary cards. 35 for women and 15 for men. I was able to complete the order today. I'm going to be really happy to hand the box of cards over tomorrow.

One of my breaks today was to do a load of laundry. I'm not really sure what RJ's trying to convey in this picture. I thought of a few captions.

I'm the king of the world!

I'm doing my Prince and the Pea impression.

Oh, hai! I'm just replacing all the fur that you're washing away right now.

The other break was going to another Tuesday Morning (3rd one in 2 days, eek). My paper haul, a more in depth look at the card order and some tips for making cards in mass production will be in a video tomorrow. I need to edit it. Now for Hunger Games and bedtime!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Shopping: OMG, there's definitely an upside and a downside to watching haul videos on YouTube. I consider YouTube a fantastic resource on where to get good deals on crafty supplies, but then I feel the urge to go to the stores so that I can join in on the shopping fun. After this birthday weekend of shopping, I'll have to take a long break from going into any of these stores!

Birthday festivities: 1 birthday, celebrated 3 different times. I feel so loved! Tonight, I went to my parents' house for dinner with my cousin, 2 aunts, uncle and my cousin's kid (first cousin, once removed?). We ate sushi from one of my favorite restaurants and topped off the night with finishing the chocolate cheesecake that I baked Friday night. I had to make sure it was out of my house because I would probably have eventually eaten the whole thing myself. Everyone seemed to like it, hooray! My cousin gave me a pot of tulips, which were really pretty.

Card: With all the item's that I bought yesterday and today, I was very excited to make a card. Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #178. I started out with some American Crafts paper. It was first one on the stack that I bought from Tuesday Morning.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Birthday festivities: My birthday started off with my phone buzzing in the early hours of the morning. Julie posted "Happy Birthday" on my Facebook wall, with each letter getting a separate post. The iPhone Facebook notifications were going off the hook. She frowned at the fact that someone else beat her to the first Facebook wall post.

Even though I stayed in bed longer than I usually do, I was very energized when I got up. I vacuumed my place up and did a load of laundry with towels and the dining room table cloth (it was very furry from RJ). Then I drove around in search for crafty things (see haul video below) and went to my parents' house. Mom framed my undergraduate and graduate school diplomas (they had been in a tube all this time). Julie got me some items off my crafty wish list and drew the cartoon kitty card with RJ on the front and family cats Ginger and Oliver (he died a few years ago) on the inside. It's not my birthday without some crafty presents, right?

Meg and Robyn came over to celebrate and the 3 of us went to see The Vow (Channing Tatum, yay), get Mexican food afterwards, and topped the night off with present opening and the chocolate cheesecake that I made last night. I'm going to count it as recipe #4 in 2012 New Year's recipe resolution. Yummm. Meg got me a recipe magazine with some baking cups and spoons, and Robyn got me the Captain America DVD. Guess what I'll be watching tomorrow. Hey, I gotta make sure the DVD works fine.

It's been a great birthday today, and I feel really loved with all the birthday calls, texts, Facebook posts and friends/family to celebrate it with. Birthday celebration part 3 will be tomorrow with my family.

Shopping: I decided to treat myself to a trip to Marshalls today. It IS my birthday after all. I got lots of American Crafts and Pebbles goodies.
Song of the day: "Part of Me" - Katy Perry.

Friday, February 17, 2012

This year, I decided to bake my own birthday cake. Sure, I could ask my parents to get me a red velvet cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory like they did a few years ago, but I wanted to try baking my own cheesecake by myself using this chocolate cheesecake recipe. I saw it on Annie's Eats recently, and I just knew it would be fully awesome. Unfortunately, it's not like I can taste test it before Meg and Robyn come over. Maybe I should bake emergency cupcakes or cookies as a back-up? Oh, the suspense. There will be a full reveal tomorrow. :)

Thank goodness for dishwashers. I made a total mess of my kitchen during tonight's culinary adventure. I can't decide if this is recipe #3.5 or #4 in my 2012 recipe New Year's resolution. I mean, my sister and I made a cheesecake for Thanksgiving last year, but this is my first one I've baked on my own.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

My birthday's on Saturday, but I've already started celebrating. Today, I celebrated with my office mates. The girl that I share my office with bought a cheesecake with fruit on top for me to share with other people in the office. It was so good! There was one last piece, and I brought it over to Jennifer across the street. She gave me some Ghirardelli peppermint bark as a birthday treat. I had no idea that you could get that stuff when it's not Christmas time. I'm ending this post with a picture of RJ from earlier, showing off his tubby for all the world to see.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

In preparation for Jennifer's (co-worker) baby shower at the end of the month, I decided to make her card tonight so that it could be circulated around the office. I've been putting off making this card because I wasn't sure if she was having twin boys or girls. Last Friday, she got the news that she was having twin girls, thus the origami rubber ducky dresses that I put as the main focus of this card. I have to laugh at the staggered way that I lined up the letters to spell "Congrats!" A) That's the only way it'd fit and B) I think it adds to the whimsicalness of the card.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Ok, so I don't have a guy to share Valentine's Day with. Meh, no biggie.

So what does a single girl do on Valentine's Day? Well, THIS single girl celebrated by taking the day off. Well, I mean, I was planning to take the day off to take care of some financial stuff with Dad and it just happened to fall on Valentine's Day. But really, it's a day about love and while most of the focus is on romantic love, I think that loving and taking care of yourself is important too. So how did I do that today? Let me count the ways.

Slept in.

Read some more of The Hunger Games. I'm about halfway through.

Took a long mid-afternoon nap.

Responded to work email only once all day.

Went to spin class.

Watched a new episode of NCIS. At least I have my TV boyfriends.

Did my nails. French manicure. It got a little banged up while I was making today's card, but who's going to be looking at my nails that closely anyway?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Here's my card for today. I wanted to use this Hero Arts flower that I bought in Minneapolis last summer. I used Distress Inks to color in the flower and Liquid Pearl to add some dimension in the center of the flower. The first time, I accidentally touched it before it was dry! ACK! Fortunately, I was able to use a tissue to wipe it off and start over. Because of so much trial and error in this card, it took a lot longer than I would have liked. At least it turned out okay!

Song of the day: "Addicted to Love" - Robert Palmer. I heard this at spin class and for some reason, I had a flash back to the time I watched the movie with the same title at a friend's house back when we were in middle school. I think it's funny how music brings back memories from a while back.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Today was Aline's (co-worker) baby shower, and I'm glad I was able to go because I missed the one held at the office.

I have finally experienced "Africa Time." It really does exist. My former co-worker Morgan (he's from Zimbabwe) introduced me to this concept a while back. It's when an event starts an hour later than what is says on the invitation and people showing up late is completely normal and expected. The invitation said 4 PM, so of course, I get to her friend's house a little after 4 PM, thinking that I was late. I got there and rang the doorbell several times, but no one answered. Uh oh. Hm. I checked the address on my phone, and I was in the right place. Where was everyone? I almost walked to my car, but then a car pulled up. "Sorry we're late!!" The host was running late and he told me that Aline was running late as well because of taking care of some last minute details and ride coordination. This is when I realized that I was the first one here. It was kinda awkward sitting in the living room for a while by myself. Ha ha.

Anyway, people were showing up like 1-1.5 hours later than it said on the invitation and for a while, it was just co-workers. The food was being served around 6:45 (the invitation said that the event was from 4-6 PM), but I didn't have any because I was planning to go to my parents' house to drop of some stuff. Aline opened my gift and gave me a big hug. She really liked the blanket that I gave her. You can see it in the picture on the left. Her friend was like "Uh, Aline, that's for the baby. Not for youuu." As I was getting my coat on my way out the door, the host was like "Yeah, you'll be remembered for this." Well, I do like to make an impression :) It was a fun time, and I'm glad that Morgan told me about what "Africa time" was a while back, because otherwise, this situation would have been more weird than funny.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

At the office: I didn't really pack a lunch today because I was banking on getting some lunch meeting leftovers. That was until I found out as I was going up the elevator that they had all been taken. Noooooo! I wandered into the kitchen anyway, as if I was the last scavenger to the party and there was nothing left. Wah.

BUT...

Then a coworker stopped me in the kitchen and said "Hey, Tina, I've been meaning to give you some money for the cards that you left out a few weeks ago. I thought you were going to leave a tip jar next to the box, but there was nothing there." Eeeh. Yeah. I mean, I thought about it, but I felt kinda funny about doing that and figured if I was hesitating, it probably wasn't a good idea. Anyway, he handed me some money and it was exactly what I needed to get a sandwich at Subway. What perfect timing! I mean, that was amazing! He didn't have to give me money because I WANTED people to take the cards that I had left in the kitchen. And he had no idea that I was looking for lunch. It was a reminder to me that what goes around comes around. I think it's true: if you do good things, good things will come back to you. :)

Book: I put The Help on hold in order to read The Hunger Games. There was some discussion about it at the brunch last Saturday so, of course, I wanna know what everyone's talking about!

Spin: The last time I went to spin was on Sunday. I missed 2 classes this week and even though I had the sniffles, I really felt compelled to go. And I'm glad that I did. Hello, exercise endorphins. How I've missed you.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

At the office: "Tina, have you been making lots of anniversary cards lately?" the policy director stops me in the hallway. Uh, yes? "Good, because I got one in the mail recently." Ha ha.

Snail mail surprise: I snail mailed a letter to my friend Suzie on Monday, but then I realized later that night that I had forgotten to put a stamp on the envelope. Ugh. Interestingly enough, I received a text message from her today with a picture of the snail mail! Somehow the postal system missed it. Whew! Someone was cutting me some slack. Thank you!

A Snoopy valentine was waiting for me in my mailbox when I got home from Jessie. You'd have to have a heart of stone to not smile at Snoopy.

Card: Here's my take on One-Layer Wednesday #78: Circles, Circles Everywhere, where we were challenged to create a card that had at least 5 circles. I decided to use this opportunity to create a card to go with the gift that I'm giving at my co-worker's baby shower on Saturday.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

RJ: I was woken up this morning by a strange whirling sound. At first, I thought it was my printer going crazy, but I guess that just goes to show how my brain just doesn't function at 5:45 AM. The printer isn't even on, dummy. Hello. I went downstairs and almost tripped over RJ, and then I found the source of the strange noise. The automatic feeder was having trouble turning because the weight that I have on it was positioned incorrectly and was preventing it from turning. The motor was grinding and RJ was freaked out. Mommmmm! I want to eat, but the noise is scary. Yeah, ok. It's fixed. Chow down. I'm going back to bed.

At the office: I missed out on my co-worker's baby shower yesterday because I was home sick. I was so bummed because I wanted to see her reaction to the card that I made and everyone signed. I stopped by her desk today to catch up with her, and she said that she really liked the card. Mission Accomplished. I also heard from 3 separate people that the cake was awesome. Wah.

Snail mail: I was happy to find some snail mail in my mailbox when I got home today (junk mail doesn't count). One was a thank you card from Laura (glad you like the orchid!) and another was a birthday card.

Monday, February 6, 2012

RJ: I was NOT a happy kitty mommy this morning. RJ found his way back to the top of the refrigerator and knocked off his old food bowl, resulting in it shattering on the kitchen tile and making a very loud noise at 5 AM. I rushed downstairs to check on the situation and yep, it was quite a mess. So, here I am, 5 AM, feeling like #$*& and breaking out the vacuum to clean up the mess so that neither one of us gets hurt. I went back to bed to try to get some restful sleep, only to have my sore throat feel worse when the alarm went off this morning. Hello, sick day.

"At the office": Except you can only sleep for so long, right? So instead of being in front of the TV the whole day to get some actual rest, I got sucked into email and conference calls. I even got an email from my boss, asking me why I was working. Because I clearly have a unhealthy, self-imposed habit of blurring the lines between work life and personal life. I hope I feel well enough to go to the office tomorrow. Being cooped up in the house isn't really all that fun either.

Card: Here's my take on this week's Fall-To Layout (#176). My goal was to use these paper cranes that Robyn gave me for Christmas. They came attached at the beak and feet so I had to cut them out so that they could stand individually. I added some texture to the black panel by heat embossing a Hero Arts background stamp (sadly, it's not very clear in the picture). I stamped the letters individually on a piece of white cardstock and used a circle punch to punch them out and stuck them on the card using foam adhesive.

I also added one of the anniversary cards that I made for an office order.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

RJ: I went downstairs to get ready for spin class this morning and RJ was no where in sight. This usually means that he's up to no good. I made a first pass around the main floor and didn't see him and knew that he wasn't upstairs because I was just there. I decided to go back into the kitchen and turn on the light. The rascal was sitting on top of the refrigerator, attempting to break into his kibble bag. When the lights went on, he had an "Oh, #$%@!" expression on his face. Luckily, I caught him before he made it all the way through. The kibble bag is now safely in tucked away in the cabinet.

Spin class: I decided to take a bike in the back row this morning. This cute guy ended up taking the bike next to me. Janice asked if there were any new spinners in the room and he raised his hand and she helped him get set up. After hearing their conversation, I found out that he was Italian. Ooo, interesting. Toward the end of class, I asked what he thought of the class. He said that he usually runs, but he wanted to try something different. I thought to myself, "Hmm...I know someone else that loves to run and loves Italy as well (Meg), maybe I should introduce them sometime. Ha ha." Hopefully he comes back!

Family: I went to my cousin's house for dinner tonight. My uncle cooked up a wonderful feast: noodles, chicken drumsticks, salmon, soup, etc. We finished it off with strawberries and custard. How can anyone watch their weight in this family?! Everyone knows how to cook good food, and we always get together to eat it!